


Empty Nesting

by seapigeon



Series: Twitter Fluff Prompts [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Artist Steve Rogers, Fluff, M/M, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 15:42:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19948699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seapigeon/pseuds/seapigeon
Summary: You never really know what you're going to get when you answer a Craigslist ad.  But if there are puppies involved, it can't be that bad.  Right?





	Empty Nesting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt by @snakeadelic1:
> 
> "Steve & Bucky, no powers AU, Bucky wants to get his little sister a puppy so he answers Steve's ad for a litter of golden retrievers."

Craigslist is always a crapshoot. Might get a normal person, might get a total creep; that’s why Bucky enlists Natasha to go out to Bed Stuy with him to see a man about a dog.

“You think he’s a backyard breeder?” he asks, biting at his thumbnail. The guy - Steve - is charging way too little for purebred Golden Retriever puppies. Everything else Bucky has looked up has had one, sometimes  _ two  _ more zeros on the price tag. It’s half the reason he brought backup; something just doesn’t seem right. But the chance of getting a puppy for Becca for only $50 is too tempting to pass up. 

Natasha shrugs without even looking at him. She is (flawlessly) applying a new lipstick with the poise of a guru while the train car jerks and shrieks around a curve. When she’s satisfied, she sets her glance upon him and says,

“They’re probably not purebreds, or they’re sick, or they have some kind of flaw. But whatever it is, you  _ cannot _ leave with more than one.”

Bucky pouts at her. For fuck’s sake, that was just the  _ one time _ , and the kittens were so cute --

“Two,” he mumbles. 

Natasha raises a perfect eyebrow at him.

“He needs a friend!” Bucky rationalizes.

She sighs, and gets up to exit the train without another word.

  
  


Steve is not a backyard breeder. Steve does not have a backyard, or even a separate bedroom. He lives in a  _ studio.  _ One glance tells Bucky that the seven puppies advertised in the ad have been sleeping on his bed, and Steve has been sleeping in the pile of comforters on the floor. That alone is enough to make Bucky’s insides get all weird and fluttery.

Not to mention Steve is outrageously cute. Bone structure for days, kissable lips, glasses that amplify impossibly blue eyes with long blond lashes. Bucky forgets how to talk.

Natasha takes over.

“Where did you get these puppies?” she asks. Even she, the ice queen, is charmed by the little fluffballs; they’re tripping over themselves to inspect the new visitors. She scratches one of the red ones between the ears and it butts at her happily.

Steve scowls. “Some jerkoff was breeding them in a vacant lot down the road. He’d leave the mama tied out. I tried calling animal control about a dozen times but they wouldn’t do anything, so I cut her loose one night and brought her to my friend Clint’s. We got her clean and fed and a few weeks later she had the puppies there. But, uh, Clint’s landlord was less than understanding. He’s not even supposed to have  _ one _ dog, let alone eight.”

“What about your landlord?” she asks, with a hint of a smile.

“Erskine? He doesn’t care. I don’t charge him for my art, so he lets me slide a lot.”

Bucky finally rediscovers his voice. “You’re an artist?”

“Yeah. Drawing and painting, a little photography here and there. Trying to teach myself digital, but my--”

“I can teach you digital!” Bucky says, too loud and too eager. Natasha gives him a look -  _ no chill, Barnes - _ and then turns back to the puppy, murmuring sweet things in Russian.

Steve’s eyes flicker over him. It’s quick but unmistakable. 

“That’s nice of you,” he says. “I might be a hopeless case, though.” The corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles. “You haven’t even seen my art.”

“Do you have an Instagram? Or a website?”

Steve is considering him in a way that makes Bucky feel flustered. The good kind of flustered.

“Sure. But you came here for a puppy, didn’t you?”

  
  


The litter is named after characters in Norse mythology. He ends up bringing Valkyrie home to Becca. He narrowly avoids buying Thor, the biggest, blondest pup of the bunch, for himself. If Natasha wasn’t there, he would have.

Steve doesn’t charge him.

“You’re going to teach me digital art,” he says simply, and hands over a business card. No matter that there’s a lot of eye contact and overlapping fingers. Just a coincidence.

“Yeah,” Bucky says, stupid with endorphins. “Wednesday at eight?”

“That’ll work.”

  
  


Steve’s laptop is ancient, and doesn’t even have enough memory to install Photoshop. One glance at Steve tells Bucky that he knew that. Steve bites at his lower lip and shrugs, the picture of innocence.

“Guess we’ll have to postpone the lesson until I get a new laptop.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“ _ So _ unfortunate,” Steve agrees, the inside of his foot sliding up Bucky’s calf under the table.

  
  


They end up making out in Steve’s blanket nest, half-drunk, and it’s all surprisingly sweet given the strength of the initial attraction. That doesn’t mean Bucky doesn’t have a raging boner to contend with when the puppies start to whine.

Steve makes a noise of protest into Bucky’s neck, but he gets up and stretches, a few joints popping. Bucky’s eyes widen. Steve is - Steve is a small person, but holy hell, is he packing.

“You coming?” Steve asks.

And he means on the  _ walk _ , he has to walk the five remaining puppies (he sold Loki to a guy named Jeff yesterday), but Bucky blurts out,

“God, I hope so.” 

Steve laughs until he wheezes, then chokes out, “Not in front of the children!” And then he laughs at his own joke some more.

What an adorable freaking moron.

  
  


Joke’s on Steve, because Bucky has done this before, that time he  _ accidentally _ brought home six kittens. Bucky messages everyone he knows on Facebook while Steve is out. It won’t take long.

Within the week the puppies are adopted, and Steve gets his bed back. The first thing they do is defile it. Vigorously. And - wow, it shouldn’t be this fast or this easy, but Bucky thinks he’s in love.

“I think I’m empty nesting,” Steve muses much later, snugged up against his side. It  _ is _ very quiet in the apartment without the puppies.

“We’ll go visit Clint and Lucky tomorrow,” Bucky decides. “ _ After _ we go shopping for a new laptop.”

Steve chuckles, a deep, pleasant sound that Bucky suspects he’ll never get enough of.

“Yes, teacher.” 


End file.
